I received my box on Monday this week. I will make a short review of all the components in the box (and the box itself).

* BoxThe box looks cheap and mine was damaged both inside and outside when I got it. There is no compartment at all and I will have to find a way to store the components in a safe and useful way.

* Sprues (miniatures)Be aware that there is some modeling to do before you will be able to play the game. You will have to remove the components of the miniatures from the sprues and glue them together. Sometimes, you will even have to glue 6 parts together. It has not bothered me, but be aware of that. There is more work to do here than with Space Hulk, since you MUST glue the body parts together.There are 5 sprues in the box:- a skeleton sprue (10 skeletons + skel. hound)- a revenant sprue (10 revenant + skel. hound)- an additional small skeleton sprue (2 skeletons)These first three sprues are white and will be easily painted with a fast wash of any color. It is a bit sad that revenants and skeletons share the same color, since they do not have the same statistics and you can easily mix them.- a regular dwarf sprue (5 dwarves + dead dwarf + mastiff)- a shieldbreaker dwarf sprue (2 dwarves with sledge hammer)The last two are gray sprues.The miniatures are fine (not SH level, though) and the modularity is quite appreciable.

* Tiles and tokensThe tiles are easy to "read" and are not too dark. The thickness is ok, but could be better (do not expect Space Hulk quality level). I think they will wear faster than SH tiles, but that is just a feeling. Besides, there is no jigsaw device to make the tiles hold together, which increases modularity, but makes it more difficult to play with children...Finally, the same drawings are used several times, which makes dungeons look a bit boring.

The tokens are made of the same cardboard as the floor tiles. It is a pity they have a plain gray back, and I hope this back will not be damaged too fast.

* DicePlain green dice, seven of them. Again, it is a bit sad there is not more variety, because players roll them together and compare them. Two different colors would have made them easier to distinguish when compared if they are put side by side.

* RulebookThe B/W rulebook has a convenient small format and gathers both rules and scenarios. There is no index, but I feel like it is not really a problem. The rules are well written and concise.

I guess you have understood that I am a bit disappointed: I expected a higher quality. I hope the game plays well: this would make me forgive all the rest!

Overall this sounds OK, though I guess I'd like to see just how thin the boards and tokens are. If they're as thick as Space Hulk first edition, then they'll work.

I think comparing this game's components to Space Hulk's is probably going to be unfair. Space Hulk cost $100 and Dwarf King's Hold will cost $50. Also GW printed Space Hulk as a special anniversary item and may not even have priced it to make a profit. Hard to tell what Space Hulk would have cost, if it were priced to make a standard profit.

I have a number of one-off miniature games like Space Hulk, none of their boxes have internal compartments. Internal compartments are more for standard boardgames in my experience.

I would have liked to see the dwarf sprues a more stand-out color. I know gray is standard and lots of people will paint their minis. I don't paint mine, at least for boardgames. Maybe a light brown color? And yes different colored dice would have been nice.

Too bad you feel the box looks cheap. I feel that a good box cover is important. I'll hold judgment on that until I see it.

@kveznerYou are absolutely right about the SH/DKH comparison being a bit unfair. I did not really intend to compare both games to judge DKH (although it sounds so: I have to admit it): the fact is that many people know SH and its components and it makes it easier to figure out how DKH might look when compared to something known.

About the internal compartments, the best attempt so far is Earth reborn. In fact, it would have been interesting to compare DKH components to ER components: for 150% of the price of DKH, you get much, much more.

But again, it does not mean that the game is bad. I still have to test it.

* Sprues (miniatures)Be aware that there is some modeling to do before you will be able to play the game. You will have to remove the components of the miniatures from the sprues and glue them together. Sometimes, you will even have to glue 6 parts together. It has not bothered me, but be aware of that. There is more work to do here than with Space Hulk, since you MUST glue the body parts together.There are 5 sprues in the box:- a skeleton sprue (10 skeletons + skel. hound)- a revenant sprue (10 revenant + skel. hound)- an additional small skeleton sprue (2 skeletons)These first three sprues are white and will be easily painted with a fast wash of any color. It is a bit sad that revenants and skeletons share the same color, since they do not have the same statistics and you can easily mix them.- a regular dwarf sprue (5 dwarves + dead dwarf + mastiff)- a shieldbreaker dwarf sprue (2 dwarves with sledge hammer)The last two are gray sprues.The miniatures are fine (not SH level, though) and the modularity is quite appreciable.

Unless they are using lower quality scuplts/casts for the boardgame, I would have to disagree here. Mantics minis have never failed to impress me with the detail and value of their minis. They are way beyond anything that Games Workshop knocks out IMHO. I do know of someone who regulary played Warhammer at GW who replaced his GW undead figures with Mantic ones. He was repeatedly asked not to bring them as they generated more interest than the GW figures.

The game is overall much more tailored to a minis audience than a boardgame audience.

The box is very thin--exactly the same construction as one of the GQ Warhammer Quest expansions.

Tiles are roughly equivalent Warhammer Quest, but of a smaller quantity. My only complaint here is the packaging---the sprues puts marks in the surface of the tiles. The curious bit is a linen finish on the back of the tiles.

The minis are amazingly detailed, and will be a bit of a pain to assemble. They are smaller than the massively huge Space Hulk bits.

If GW had suddenly turned around and issued a new boardgame after a... 12 year hiatus, this is what it would look like.

The one thing I did notice is that the game does not come with the typical Mantic square bases. The mini design includes smaller round platforms as part of the minis, but these strike me as a little too small for general use.

The one thing I did notice is that the game does not come with the typical Mantic square bases. The mini design includes smaller round platforms as part of the minis, but these strike me as a little too small for general use.

That is odd. All the Mantic stuff I have bought to date comes on the little round bases, but with separate square bases that the round base fits into if you require it.

The one thing I did notice is that the game does not come with the typical Mantic square bases. The mini design includes smaller round platforms as part of the minis, but these strike me as a little too small for general use.

That is odd. All the Mantic stuff I have bought to date comes on the little round bases, but with separate square bases that the round base fits into if you require it.

It seems not to be a problem with your box: I have no square base in mine either.

Also, some of the board sections look quite narrow and small (not as in thickness of the card, but as in being corridors only one square wide and a few squares long). Do these tiles tend to fly around and spin on the table quite easily messing up the board while in play?

Overall, I have to agree. Aside from the miniatures which I do like, I was rather underwhelmed by the production values. The box was quite flimsey and the card tiles could have been thicker. The comparison made in an earlier post with 90s GW boxed games is pretty much what I was thinking, except that the card tiles in Dwarf King's Hold are thinner than, say, those found in 1st ed Space Hulk and Advanced Heroquest. It may be that I've been spoiled by the high quality components found in most contemporary boardgames, but I was expecting a bit more for the price tag. That said, I'm looking forward to trying out the game once I've painted the minis.

The gallery for the game is starting to fill up. I've just added a shot of the undead (after I painted them).

RedMonkeyBoy wrote:

Also, some of the board sections look quite narrow and small (not as in thickness of the card, but as in being corridors only one square wide and a few squares long). Do these tiles tend to fly around and spin on the table quite easily messing up the board while in play?

Three games in and it hasn't been a problem for me (and that was on a smooth wood surface).